Vladimir Guerrero was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for the second time. His unique career not only convinces traditionalists, but also withstands modern approaches. SPOX introduces the Outfielder and explains what made it so special.
What makes a Hall-of-Famer? In general, he should be one of the obviously best players of his generation. And if that’s not enough, then he should at least rank among the best in the review by the prism of the lofty modern statistics.
After a long wait, the latter aid led to Tim Raines, whose career was good but not outstanding from a traditional point of view, making it to Cooperstown last year. Why? Because from a sabermetrics point of view his performances were outstanding and clearly distinguished from other players of his time, but also today.
However, there is no such case in the 2018 class. I didn’t have to. Chipper Jones was an MVP and one of the best players of his time, Jim Thome beat more than 600 homeruns, which is still a manslaughter argument in hall-of-fame circles – unless someone suspected, albeit without evidence, that doping could have been theoretically involved. But in everyone’s opinion, Thome was clean. And Trevor Hoffman let the self-opinionated voters wriggle over his 600 Saves long enough, so he came in on the third attempt.
And then there’s Vladimir Guerrero! The man from the Dominican Republic, who was unexpectedly refused admission in 2017, came in this time with more than 90 percent of the votes. And why not?”Vlad” pretty much satisfied all possible generations in their consideration of the hall-of-fame-qualification.
The traditionalists had their bright joy in Guerrero anyway, after all his Batting Average was great! From 1997, his first full season in the MLB, to 2008, he always beat. 300 – in fact, he only stayed below this neuralgic figure in 2009 and 2011, but even in the years of his life it was. 295 and. 290 stately stroke averages.
What’s more, his. 318 average was only 18 players outperforming his 9059 Plate Appearances. All of these gentlemen can be found in Cooperstown!
He beat “only” 449 homeruns, but he was joined by a number of doubles, bringing his slugging percentage to a total of 553 – among all retired players he was ranked 21st – and 14th place among hall-of-famers. He’s in front of people like Mike Piazza or Ken Griffey Jr. to name just two.
But if you look at the world of modern, more meaningful statistics, Guerrero knows how to convince just as well. At the end of his career, he had a 140 OPS+ – a statistic that roughly put together almost all possible strikes and takes environmental factors such as stadium size out of the equation – and superstar Alex Rodriguez also came up with this figure. A value containing the numbers of Griffey Jr. and Tony Gwynn, who is also in the Hall of Fame.
But also various other statistics like WRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus), which calculates the involvement of a player in the run production of his team without environmental factors, see him in front of various Hall-of-Famern.
All in all, there is little that speaks against him when it comes to the Hall of Fame, especially since he also has an MVP Award, which voters always like to see.
But what made Guerrero so special? What distinguished him? His trademark was the Batting-Helmet, which was always completely dirty with Pine Tar (wood tar). Since Guerrero always beat without batting-gloves, he smeared the stuff on his helmet. So he could get his hands on the helmet Pine Tar with a short handle to improve his grip. The fact that he was already equipped with strong, robust hands could be traced back to his childhood. At that time he helped his grandfather in the cathedral. Rep. in the process of grazing cows.
On the other hand, it was definitely his aggressive way of playing the record, which he basically developed in his early childhood. As a child he played a game similar to cricket in his homeland. With broomsticks, the hitter swung for balls that let the pitcher hit the ground and tried to hit folded license plates.
Nowadays more and more hitters tend to confine themselves to the famous “Three True Outcomes”, i. e.: Homerun, Walk or Strikeout.
Vladimir Guerrero, on the other hand, knew only one goal: When a pitch arrived, he had to beat him! No matter where he went. Even pitches in the dirt weren’t an obstacle for Vlad, who sometimes made hits out of it. Hall-of-famer and TV expert Cal Ripken Jr. once said about Guerrero:”He’s the best bad ball hitter I’ve ever seen.”
In 2008, after almost 46 percent of the pitches outside the strike zone, it was by far the highest value in 2008. With his 1.91 meters and always about 106 kilograms he had an enormous range and despite his questionable pitch selection he managed to beat the supposedly bad pitches again and again, not only to beat them but also to beat them with power. For doubles or home runs.
So he managed to get home runs, but the other two “true results” were almost completely ignored by Guerrero! Guerrero seldom took walks at all untypical in this day and age. His career high was 88 in 2001. In total, it was only 737. However, he did 250 Intentional Walks, which means 5th place overall. But even strikeouts were completely unfamiliar to him, even though he was such an aggressive hitter: He never had 100 strikeouts in one season, and in his career it was only 985. Incredible from today’s point of view!
These qualities also distinguished him at the very beginning of his career. It has been said that he once injured himself in the training camp of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1993 with a double on his thigh and in the following At-Bat he deliberately hit a homerun – not to have to run!
With the Dodgers, however, he didn’t hold him very much because he didn’t like the structure of the camp there. So he finally went to the Montreal Expos, for which he was active for a total of eight years and established various franchise records. In 2004 he finally changed to the Los Angeles Angels, for which he continued his great career at that time.
One of his motives for moving to Anaheim, and not New York or one of the various other teams that were very interested in his services, is said to have been team owner Arte Moreno. At that time he was the first baseball team owner with Latin American roots, which made a big impression on Guerrero.
His origins have always filled him with pride, he has always carried the Dominican flag with him at All-Star Games or his victory in the 2007 Homerun Derby. And home is also behind him. On Wednesday, one of the congratulators after the Hall-of-Fame announcement was the President of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, who said via Twitter:”It is a source of pride for all Dominicans that he carried our flag to the top.”
Guerrero himself said after the proclamation:”This is for Don Gregorio (his hometown, N. B. C.). d. Red.), my family and the entire Dominican Republic.”
The fact that he had probably arrived at the right place in Anaheim was immediately evident in 2004, as Guerrero was voted MVP of the American League, and by far even more so. In the following three years he always ended up in the top ten of this election – twice he finished third, once ninth. But he never reached a World Series.
In his time after baseball, Guerrero is still busy. He owns various companies in his home country and is also an eightfold father – with five women. One of his sons, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., could even continue the family tradition. It is the top prospect of the Toronto Blue Jays and could make it into the MLB in the not too distant future.
But first there is a trip to Cooperstown/New York at the end of July, where Guerrero is officially accepted into the baseball hall of fame. Proud of the whole Dominican Republic.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.